September 30, 2009

Back in the playoffs, and Iain of Baseball Desert fame flies in tonight for another pilgrimage to Fenway.

I'm taking time off to show him more sights around the Boston area, which meant last night I had to work so late I only got home in time to see Youkilis stand at the plate with two on and two outs down one run in the bottom of the ninth, work a full count, and then watch strike three streak past him into the catcher's mitt.

As Soxaholix put it, "Ah, yes, nothing quite like chahging into the playoffs by losing 5 straight including getting nonchalantly flicked like a
boogah off the nose of the pinstriped 800 lb playoff gorilla."

Then again, the theme of this team this year has been ups and downs -- BIG ups and downs. I figure if they're getting their inexplicable week-long slump out of the way now, maybe it'll up the chances they'll get hot mid-September-style by this time next week.

September 28, 2009

Instead of saving a comeback for the final minutes, the Patriots regrouped after a somewhat lackluster first half to win decisively over the Atlanta Falcons on a gray and drizzly afternoon in Foxboro today. The win puts them back above .500 and kept the Patriots breathing down the neck of the first-place Jets, who notched their third win in Tennessee.

Runningback Fred Taylor was a standout throughout the game, scoring the Patriots' only touchdown of the first 30 minutes with an 8-yard run early in the second quarter. The score was the fifth consecutive running play on the drive, the fourth in a row featuring Taylor, the team's leading rusher today with 105 yards. Taylor would make three more consecutive carries just before halftime and again to open the third quarter; he had more attempts (21) than the rest of the team combined today (18).

Might Taylor become the Patriots' featured back? Or is there really no such thing when it comes to the Patriots?

Sammy Morris also made some key appearances today, but had more yards receiving (46) than rushing (16); most of the time he seemed to be used on screen plays and quick outs rather than running plays.

If Julian Edelman is the new Wes Welker, is Sammy Morris becoming the new Kevin Faulk?

Meanwhile, who's the new Vince Wilfork, and for how long will the team have to find that out? I noticed my rookie favorite Myron Pryor took over on a few downs when Wilfork went down with a leg injury in the first half.

***

After the half, the Brady-Moss Show took over for the running game, and spent the last 7 minutes of the third quarter putting together one of the ballsiest drives I've ever seen in person.

Beginning deep in their own territory, the Patriots offense faced a 4th and 1 on their own 24 yard line; at that time the game was still 13-10. "The way we're playing defense so far today, we're gonna go for it down there?!" cried my father incredulously, peering downfield through his binoculars.

They were. And they made it, on a two-yard run by Sammy Morris.

Taylor, Brady and Moss ate up yards in gulps after that, down to the Atlanta 37, where once again the offense stalled, facing a 4th and 3. Once again, the regular personnel took the field. Moments later, Randy Moss was cradling the ball near the sideline; it had floated 20 yards over his shoulder to land gently in his outstretched hands before he tumbled with his defender out of bounds.

This kind of thing doesn't happen when Brady isn't around.

***

Let me take off my Homer Hat for just a moment; fun as it was to watch them gut out that drive, it still wasn't until the mid-4th quarter that Brady finally captured that elusive touchdown pass.

It came on another deep route up the right-hand sideline, this time to Chris Baker, who ran it the rest of the way in. This made the score 26-10 Patriots, your final, and made Brady the first NFL player in history to rack up more than 200 touchdown passes with less than 100 career interceptions.

In today's context, the record books don't matter much. More important is the way the team is clawing its way toward coherence so far this season, just like they were on those fourth-down plays in the third quarter. In those last moments of this game, it felt like things might finally be coming together.

September 26, 2009

It really doesn't matter who the player is -- seeing someone struck on a baseball field by the ball, another person, or a piece of broken bat and go down like a ton of bricks is always a terrible experience. One second, we're all shaking our fists at the television, cursing Lester's slow start at the Stadium, and the next, none of that matters one bit.

It was just yesterday that it was reported Lester will start Game 1 in the playoffs rather than Josh Beckett. Then suddenly, as the replay loop of the ball striking next to Lester's right knee and boomeranging back toward home plate at a sickening angle began to play, all of that seemed in doubt.

But to me, it was more than that. The attachment to Jon Lester is deeper and more personal than for many other players among Sox fans, a feeling embodied perfectly by the way Tito gently touched his head, then shoulders, once Lester was on his feet again, as if he were his own child.

I had tears in my eyes watching Lester roll around next to the mound and grimace in agony, clutching his knee. Nobody wants to see that with any player--but with Lester, our homegrown boy, our survivor, seeing him in that kind of pain was especially cruel.

Thankfully Lester was helped to his feet and was able to limp off the field under his own power, though a trainer kept that symbolic and protective hand on him at all times, and Big Papi immediately abandoned his seat on the bench to follow Lester down the tunnel -- quite literally, the heart and soul of the team left with him.

After that, September callup Hunter Jones was tapped, gulped, and was thrown to the wolves of the Yankees lineup, promptly tacking on two more runs before the inning was even finished. 5-0 Yankees with our starter literally knocked out in the bottom of the third. The rest was a foregone conclusion.

I don't know what it is about the Red Sox and Yankees since the All-Star Break. All I know is, the Sox will seem to get hot elsewhere, and then run into the Yankees like a brick wall, and that trend continued with this game.

Last night, though, it only added insult to a much more important injury. To be honest, once Lester left, I was pretty much shot for the night. It was hard to pay attention after that. And just as well I didn't -- Boston was soundly defeated, 9-5.

Thankfully, it's been reported since that Lester has a deep contusion (bruise) in his right quadriceps, no bone involvement, and may not even miss a start. However, it's not as if his performance hadn't been worrisome before this happened; the moment he got hit, he was standing on the mound down three runs and with the bases loaded. Now he's lucky to have escaped a broken kneecap in his plant leg -- and a thousand new question marks about the 2009 postseason for the Sox just sprang up overnight.

September 25, 2009

Dudes. Is it just me, or has this Kansas City series been virtually unwatchable? Playing out the string against an AL basement team -- most of it in the rain -- and SPLITTING THE SERIES -- I mean, what's the use?

And I'm sorry, but nobody wants to watch Manny Delcarmen flailing around on the mound and getting punk'd by teams that have no business beating a playoff-bound club, I don't care what the circumstances.

Regular-season Tito seems hell-bent on running him out there no matter how many times he's lit up like he's covered in napalm; let's hope Playoff Tito will follow his usual MO and stuff Delcarmen in a locker for the duration of the postseason.

Despite this week's tomfoolery, we also retain a healthy Wild Card lead, in which case, watching Delcarmen crap the bed has been not only excruciating, but probably irrelevant to boot. Not my idea of a good time.

All anyone I know wants to talk about is Lester vs. Beckett in Game 1, set to start in approximately three years judging by the time scale it seems we're currently working with. (One coworker wanted to discuss V-Mart vs. Tek, but that's not really a debate anymore, is it?)

There's been some reporting today by Sean McAdam that Lester will start things off. While it's entirely possible this could come to pass in the first series, I wouldn't bet against Commander Kickass reclaiming his rightful place in the rotation with a commanding performance.

Is it bad luck to be looking ahead already? Am I inviting doom by counting unhatched chickens? I have to remind myself we've got one more series in the Bronx to go, and in this case, there *are* major implications, even though the stumble in Kansas City probably has put the AL East out of reach for good.

Both sides of the rivalry have gone through so many personality transplants this season that I have absolutely no idea what to expect heading into this weekend or, possibly, a playoff series against them. The Sox still lead the season series thanks to early-season dominance, but the Yankees have absolutely trounced the Sox through the late season.

Though then again, this was before Papi found his stroke, Lester and Beckett mostly settled down, and Clay Buchholz was apparently bitten by that proverbial radioactive spider. This weekend's final showdown with the MFY will show us just how hot the Sox have really gotten of late, and what the odds are of sustaining this momentum as the leaves turn.

Which leads me back to my general impatience for the playoffs. I want to see what the Mighty Stickbug does in a playoff situation. I want to see if a little of that Commander Kickass comes out in him. I want to see what happens when he brings his best stuff to the national stage. I want to see what it's like to have the new Beckett-infused Lester in the rotation. And most of all I want to see a return of the Josh Beckett who seems like he'd as soon rip out your throat with his teeth as look at you.

Sigh.

Here's something, meanwhile, that may help keep me occupied as long as time-machine technology remains imperfect: the movement reportedly afoot to enshrine Fever Pitch as the state's official movie. I swear to God I will chain myself to the State House if this actually goes forward, which would at least distract me from the playoff hunger for a few days.

September 20, 2009

There was one operative difference between the Patriots game last week
and this week's effort against the New York Jets: the opponent.

Against Buffalo, which chose to run a prevent defense in the second
half vs. the Patriots, letting Brady hang back and make reads, the Jets
blitzed Brady first and asked questions later. There always seemed to
be a defender free to bust through the offensive line and flush Brady
from the pocket or knock him on his ass. Obviously, the offensive line
had a hand in this - Brent called in his preview post for
improvement from this unit, but they were clearly overwhelmed today.

Another difference? Venue. And, again, this comes back to opponent.

It's well known that the Jets and Patriots hate one another as
franchises. There's been plenty of turnover on both teams since
SpyGate, but the institutional animosity lingers. The fans, above all,
have not left behind the bitterness of SpyGate - I'd venture to guess
on both sides.

In this case, the Patriots didn't have fans there to play the 12th
man--the Jets did. It makes me dry-heave like Bill Belichick between
questions at his postgame press conference today to admit it, but the
Jets' stadium noise (reportedly directly requested by Rex Ryan in a
voicemail sent to fans pre-game) was at least a factor in the Patriots'
eleven penalties, several of which were for delay of game.

Penalties reared their head on both sides of the ball, but this was one
of the few statistical comparisons the Patriots won, at 11 for 89 yards
to the Jets' 8 for 55. In particular, an offensive holding penalty on
Benjamin Watson just as the Patriots reached a first down with 5
minutes to go in the game seemed to be the last straw; the Patriots
would wind up punting and essentially conceding the game after that.

Thus, there were no offensive heroics to match last week's. The defense
only looked good in comparison to last week's effort and this week's
offensive disorganization. Without Jerod Mayo and Richard Seymour, it
still seems to be a rudderless unit. It's obvious the Patriots are
lucky to be 1-1 right now, and this week, they weren't able to get away
with their mistakes.

Bill Belichick was trying to be a pill in his press conference when he
kept saying, "we just didn't do a good enough job," but really, the
execution throughout this game, particularly on offense, was so
uniformly poor it's hard to call out one particular gaffe over another
as the reason for the failure (with the possible exception of Watson's
penalty in crunch time). These are just not the crisp, lockstep
Patriots we've grown spoiled by in New England. It's obvious they're
feeling the coaching and personnel turnover and can't seem to get on
the same page.

That said, I'd much rather see this outcome in Week 2, as the Patriots
are known for working to improve week to week, and they still have time
to redeem themselves.

September 16, 2009

I believe it was Amy who first described the Mike Scioscia face in its natural habitat of Fenway Park: "Like he wet his pants three innings ago and he's just trying to power through."

In this case, judging by this rare variant on the Mike Scioscia face, it may have gone a little further than that when Brian Fuentes walked a run home to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth.

Then Gonzo hit a "quail shot," to quote Eckersley, scoring the walkoff run, and my heart melted into a puddle of goo watching him pump his fist and yell as he ran toward first base, and his teammates scrambled in from field and dugout to mob him.

It's gotten rather ALDS-y in here, hasn't it? In which case, I have but one thing to add: Josh Beckett. Tomorrow night.

September 15, 2009

Tek is like an old Buick, still solidly built and still on the road, by God, except sometimes when you go to start it it coughs and won't turn over, or in Tek's case, hucks a ball even Alex Gonzalez can't field into shallow center trying to catch Chone Figgins stealing a base, and despite yourself you find yourself cursing. Saying things you never thought you would, back in the good old days. And you had some good days indeed with the old fella, you feel compelled to add, as your blood pressure returns to normal.

Seriously, though, I was on edge with Tek. That eight-stolen-base humiliation at the hands of the Rangers remains fresh, but his bat worried me, too. It had been unexpectedly announced this afternoon that V-Mart is headed back to Cleveland for undisclosed personal reasons and may be gone a few days. Also, it was added, Kevin Youkilis was taken to Mass General with back spasms so painful they thought at first it was kidney stones, so he'd be out of the lineup tonight too.

Your starter tonight? Daisuke Matsuzaka, for the first time in three months. Have a nice day.

Tek's gaffe didn't amount to any runs on the board for the Angels. The Sox went down against John Lackey in short order in the bottom of the frame.

A short time later, NESN returned from commercial with footage of Daisuke coming out between the first and second inning to throw to Varitek from a few steps behind the mound, stretching out his arm and doing some lunges to stretch out his legs.

One inning had already gone by relatively incident-free, but I remained braced for impact.

And Daisuke proceeded to amaze the world by starting a hitter 0-1. He further gobsmacked the planet by following with a pitch well inside, which Torii Hunter grounded to Gonzo.

Then he went 2-0 on Kendry Morales, the first pitch in the dirt and the second outside. On the third pitch, 89 mph on the upper outside corner to the lefthander, Morales tapped the ball to Pedroia.

Two outs. Five pitches.

Pitches...to contact.

With Juan Rivera at the plate, pitch number six of the inning jammed the righthander inside, popping up into shallow right center, where the Elf gloved it without breaking a sweat.

Six freakin' pitches.

Daisuke's first strikeout came in the third inning, a high fastball to send Jeff Mathis down swinging. Leadoff hitter Chone Figgins returned to the plate, the only man to have made it to first base (on a walk) the first time through the Halos lineup.

He was--I can barely believe it as I type it--working quickly. Very quickly. I'd also begun to notice he looked trimmer than I'd seen him since he first got here. It wasn't till I saw him tonight that I realized he'd gotten a little puffy in the last year. Not even pudgy, really, but tonight he seemed more compact, somehow, than when last we saw him. It was like he'd been completely overhauled, wound up to run a little faster, and re-released to the field by a team of cunning bioengineers.

He started off Bobby Abreu 0-2 in the fourth, wasted one down and inside, and then K'd Abreu with a fastball right on the inside corner, which crossed up Varitek slightly, but good God, now is not the time to be picky.

It just kept getting more incredible. Runners reached second and third in the fifth, and then Daisuke came roaring back, attacking the strike zone--attacking the strike zone!!--punching out Jeff Mathis, and then Chone Figgins, to preserve his shutout, walking off showered in the ravings of a crowd that had, like me, completely lost its shit over the whole thing.

It can't just be me, can it? Surely no one is going to walk around tomorrow claiming they saw this one coming.

In the sixth--the sixth inning!! He pitched the sixth inning!!--Daisuke faced down Torii Hunter with a man on second, worked the count 0-2 and then got Hunter to line out to Mike Lowell. Meanwhile, the offense did just fine without its hot bats, chipping away at Lackey and finally plating two runs in the bottom of the sixth (they would go on to add two more in the bottom of the eighth with a triple (!!) by JD Drew, an RBI single by Bay (he was thrown out stretching to a double) and, to cap it all off, a mighty, record-breaking homer by Big Papi).

Tito was quick with the hook after Dice walked the first hitter of the top of the seventh, but he walked off to a hero's ovation again. He had thrown 93 pitches, allowed three hits, walked three, and struck out five.

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